Bernard Chambaz – författare

'I hate marathons. Hate running. An hour before leaving, I received a text. Instead of 'Good luck,' it was 'We're finished.' So, I went to a bar on 95th next to the subway. Had a few bourbons with some other mope. Then I got on a bike. I took off down the old Highway 750, the Lincoln Highway.' Forget Route 66. This is the original cross-country highway that takes you through REAL America, the first to cross all of the US from the Big Apple to the City on the Bay. This is THE road trip. On a bike.

There are no rules, and even less justice. Death takes everyone without discrimination. Sometimes it is accidental - like Signorelli, who fell from scaffolding. Sometimes it is expected, as with the diabetic Cezanne, who wrote "I am old, sick, and I swore to die while painting". But often, researching a painter's death is an easier task than determining which of their works is truly their 'last'. Paintings tend to be dated by year and not month, inciting much debate among art historians. This book embraces this ambiguity, studying 100 examples of works that lay completed for several years, or were left unfinished on the easel, or were finished post-mortem by a friend's grieving hand.The Last Painting collects 100 terminal paintings from 100 artists, including Dalí, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Goya, Pollock, Rembrandt, Dix, Bonnard, Titien, and many more. Each picture gives us a glimpse into the painter's mind. Did they know death was coming? Did they paint with denial, or acceptance? Did they return to a favourite subject, or decide to embark on a new, original project while they still had time? A poetic and thought-provoking book, The Last Painting is a sensitive exploration of the relationship between art and death.